New U.S. sanctions illustrate sprawling Islamic State network

Islamic State stretching global influence

Ken Dilanian, Associated Press

September 29, 2015

WASHINGTON - The U.S. government announced sanctions Tuesday against 25 people and five groups connected to the Islamic State, disclosing intelligence that depicts a sprawling international organization with tentacles across Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

The moves by the Treasury and State departments are aimed at disrupting the activities of Islamic State financial, logistical and recruiting operatives who may not be suitable targets of American bombs or drone strikes. Many of them reside outside the theaters of war in Iraq and Syria.

The sanctions, the largest such effort against the Islamic State, also serve to demonstrate how far and wide the group's ideology has spread.

The State Department also designated as terrorists three French nationals and a Russian. Russia, France and other countries cooperated with the U.S. in supplying information that contributed to the sanctions, officials said.

Also Tuesday, the State Department announced a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the significant disruption of commerce in oil and antiquities by, for, on behalf of, or to benefit the Islamic State. It was a first for the Rewards for Justice Program, which typically offers rewards for information leading to wanted individuals.

The Treasury Department, meanwhile, slapped financial sanctions on Islamic State officials who operate in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Yemen and Tunisia. Among the individuals it sanctioned in Syria was British national Aqsa Mahmood, who is accused of recruiting three British schoolgirls in February to flee the United Kingdom to become wives of Islamic State fighters. She is believed to be in Syria.

Previously, the Treasury Department had sanctioned just four Islamic State officials, one of whom was killed in a U.S. drone strike in June.

The financial sanctions are designed to make it harder for the Islamic State to use its immense wealth, said Daniel Glaser, the department's assistant secretary for terrorist financing, in an interview.

Financial institutions around the world tend to honor U.S. sanctions, he said. The State Department designations mean that anyone who supports the individuals or groups can be prosecuted under U.S. law.

Much of the Islamic State's income is generated internally, Glaser said, from oil sales, taxation and extortion, so sanctions can't cut that off. Instead, they are meant "so that they can't get supplies, parts, things that you need to run a state, things that you need to engage in a war," he said.

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